The description of the remove subcommand implies that the command will not work when certain conditions exist. Instead, the command will execute in these conditions but the results might adversely affect the cluster. The following is a more accurate description of the remove subcommand requirements and behavior:
To remove a node from a cluster, observe the following guidelines. If you do not observe these guidelines, the removal of a node might compromise quorum in the cluster.
Unconfigure the node to be removed from any quorum devices, unless you also specify the -f option.
Ensure that the node to be removed is not an active cluster member.
Do not remove a node from a three-node cluster unless at least one shared quorum device is configured.
The clnode remove command attempts to remove a subset of references to the node from the cluster configuration database. If the -f option is also specified, the subcommand attempts to remove all references to the node.
Before you can successfully use the clnode remove command to remove a node from the cluster, you must first use the claccess add command to add the node to the cluster authentication list, if it is not already in the list. Use the claccess list or claccess show command to view the current cluster authentication list. Afterwards, for security use the claccess deny-all command to prevent further access of the cluster configuration by any cluster node. For more information, see the claccess(1CL) man page.